Westley Allen (Erratic! Radio) on Yus, The Eastside Jets, and The Muddy Moneys

Clockwise from top left: The Eastside Jets, Muddy Moneys, Yus, and Westley Allen

If you're into scuzzy rock 'n' roll in this town, you know Westley Allen -- either from his time onstage with The Plainfield Butchers, his gig behind the bar at Time Out Lounge, or as the host of Erratic! Radio on KWSS.

Allen took some time to listen to three local tunes from Yus, The Eastside Jets, and The Muddy Moneys at the Erratic! headquarters, before he split to catch the Aggrolites and Peelander Z at The Sail Inn.

The Plainfield Butchers are scheduled to perform in October at the Las Vegas Shakedown in Las Vegas, with The Flaming Groovies, Zeke, Deadbolt, and more. You can hear Erratic Radio! every Tuesday night at 8 p.m.

Yus, "Girls"
Yus is a one-man chillwave/indietronica/hip-hop act from Phoenix. You can hear the album Palms at the official Yus Bandcamp site.

Up on the Sun: What did you think of that?

Westley Allen: Um, it was kind of just bland, actually. Kind of straight forward. I couldn't really understand the chorus. I heard it said something about girls, but I couldn't understand after that. It was following up with something, but I don't know what it was. Could you [understand?]

I couldn't really get it all. I made out little snatches of it, but the lyrics don't seem to be focal. Everything is --

It's all in the background. The vocals were mixed in the background. It reminds me of a song I hear a lot at work. [Does some quick research.] MGMT, "Time to Pretend."

Yeah, this sounds like a lot of '80s influenced stuff coming out right now.

This sounds like all the songs getting played at Time Out Lounge, where I work. It sounds like stuff people are playing right now. It's off my radar, but definitely.

I like the tones. The sounds are really great, it's well produced. I think he does everything himself. The beat was a little boring, it got monotonous. I liked what was happening most of the time, but I don't know if I liked it happening as long as it did.

It was a continual riff, through the whole song, with a loop he added on here and there.

Which is fine -- one way people do things. I thought, "Hey, this is really pretty, but then it didn't take me anywhere." But this is a really popular sound right now, and Yus is doing it well.

Yeah, it sounds like five or six songs that get played every hour at the bar, which is a good thing.

This is the first time I've sat down and listened to this artist, but I will certainly be listening to more. Paying attention, for sure.